Improvement in steam-engine governors



STATES NNE PATENT Trice..

DAVID snrvn, or PHLLAD ELPHIA, PENNSYLVANlA,

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 54,423, dated May l, 1866.

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID SHIVE, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Governors for Equalizing the Speed in Steam and other Engines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation ot' the saine,refereuce be` ing had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in Which- Figure l is a perspective view, and Fig. 2' a horizontal Orthographie projection, of the said invention applied and in motion in the direction of the arrows in Fig. 2, like letters, when in both figures, indicating the same parts.

The object of my invention is the production of a governor depending Vupon inertia and momentum instead of centrifugal force and dead weight only for its principal acting forces, so constructed that the usual weight of the balls may be greatly reduced andthe binding of the joints from which they are suspended entirely obviated during the motions of the governor, thus reducing the friction and rendering the governor more sensitive to the changes in the speed of the engine.

It consists, substantially as hereinafter described and set forth, in suspending the balls by their rigid arms from joints so constructed, arranged, and secured to the spindle that the said balls are left almost entirely free to rise and fall during the rot-ary motion of the governor in directions which 4may be considered the resultants of their gravitation and centrit ugal forces.

In the drawings, A A are the balls 5 B, the rotatory spindle; G, the supporting-column; D, the sleeve, and E the lever whereby the sleeve is connected to the supply-val ve. h 7L are the arms of the balls, andfgfg thejoints of suspension.

Construction On the upper end of the spindle B an arched piece, F, is iixed transversely, the lower ends of which being formed into bosses or cylinders j' f, arranged horizontally, so as to be in planes parallel to each other, substantially as represented in the drawings. The cylinders f f are each bored longitudinall y and tted with a cylindrical mandrel, g g, which will be'free to rotate therein. To the outer ends of these mandrels the rigid arms h h of the weight-balls AA are respectively fixed, 4

while to the inner ends of the said manlrels short arms t' i are respectively fixed, to project in opposite directions to each other and to connect by slotted joints or in any other' suitable manner with the' sleeve D, so that the rising and falling motions of the balls A A shall cause corresponding falling and rising Inomotions, or vice versa, in the sleeve D, and consequently, through the lever E, operate the usual supply-valve of the engine.

Operation: When an en ginelitted with this governor is started there will be communicated to the cylinders ff a tendency to run away fromthe balls A A by virtue of the inertia of the said balls, and consequently, aside from any centrifugal tendency imparted at the same time by the rotary motion of the spindle B,

they Will be caused to rise, and, the connections which unite them to the valve of the en-I gine being adjusted to the required speed of the latter, whenever an excess of steam is admitted by the supply-valve, or the Work to be performed by the engine diminished, the speed of the rotary motion of the spindle B will be accordingly increased, but the inertia of the balls A A not being instantly overcome thereby, they will rise from the operation of these causes, and thus instantly diminish the valveopening and reduce the speed of the engine, and if there should occur even a slight reduction only in the required supply of steam through the valve, or an addition of Work be put upon the engine, diminishing accordingly the rotary speed of the spindle B, the momentum of the balls A A, in connection with whatever diminution of their centrifugal force there may be, will cause them instantly to fall and so enlarge vthe opening in the valve and restore the regular speed of the engine. It will, therefore, be manifest that while the old ballgovernor depends for its useful effect entirely upon the centrifugal motion and the gravitation of the balls, in this improvement the inertia and the momentum of the balls are thus made importantly effective for the purpose, and that consequently a more sensitive or quickly-acting equalizer of the speed of an engine is produced, and also that the weight required in the balls, and consequently the friction arising therefrom in the old governor, aside from the lateral strain produced in its joints by changes inthe rotary speed of its spindle, are in this improvement greatly reduced, thus rendering the apparatus more durable and'lessening the consumption of the power of the engine to drive it.

The central longitudinal lines of the joints should, in order to allow the balls at all times to swing freely by their arms h h, be tangential to the spindle and at the distance of about the semidiameter of either ball from the center ofthe shaft or spindle B, or substantially as represented in Fig. 2 5 and being thus ap` plied to the spindle, it will be evident that the said suspension-joi nts will always remain free from any binding effect from the action of the balls, because the respective positions of the arms l1l L of the balls are always at right angles to the mandrels ggof theirjoints; and hence, also, all guides or other devices for keeping the arms and balls in proper positions are dispensed with. In action the balls are allowed to fall behind the spindle, or the spindle gaining on them and by rs't impulse correcting the valve, so as not to leave any perceptible change in the speed of the engine. It'

the speed of the engine relaxes the momentum` of the balls gains on the speed of the spindle and thus instantly changes the valve.

Having thus fully described my improve-` ment in governors and pointed out its utility, what I claim as new therein, of my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

suspending the balls A A by rigid arms h h, connected to the spindle B by means of joints consisting of the cylinders f f and the mandrels g g. or their equivalents, arranged in relation to the said spindle, arms, and balls substantially as described and represented.

y DAVID SHIVE. Witnesses: BENJ. MoRIsoN, B. F. SHATTUGK. 

